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Talk:Timeline/@comment-24179867-20140625170137/@comment-7160420-20140626223504
I commend your effort in trying to reconcile the various continuity errors present between the films. Unfortunately, the solution of creating multiple timelines simply to reconcile these errors adds further confusion than clarification. It's also rather unnecessary. As illustrated in the infographic at the top of the Timeline page, the timeline has only one major split in 1973, when Mystique refuses to kill Trask - which creates a new timeline that ultimately ends up in the non-dystopian 2023 as seen at the end of DoFP (the split in 2023 as seen at the beginning of DoFP is only pertinent to DoFP). Prior to this, it was all one timeline, not two or more. Additionally, assuming that many of the discrepancies apparent between the films can only be explained by the presense of other realities is both confusing and limiting. There can be multiple reasons to explain such discrepancies that don't need to be explicitly stated in the films and don't require creating new realities to explain them. For instance... 1. Logan seemingly being at peace at the end of X3 vs. being troubled at the beginning of The Wolverine. Just because Logan doesn't show remorse initially doesn't mean it's not there. As seen in X3, he shows great pain just after killing Jean, and it was hard for him to initially kill her before neccessity forced him to. Guilt/remorse doesn't always need to be apparent not long after the act. Once Logan was living a solitary life again, the regret and guilt finally resurfaced, bubbled over and consumed him. 2. Although the promotional for X-Men Origins stated that the Emma was supposed to be Emma Frost, First Class overruled that. Additionally, given that Emma's surname wasn't mentioned in the film, the fact that she's Kayla's younger sister, that her sister's surname is Silverfox, and that Origins ''takes place in the late 70s, it can be safely said (especially in light of ''First Class, which takes place in the early 60s) that the Emma in Origins ''is definitely not the same Emma in ''First Class. If you are dead set on sticking with the promotional, though, the reason why Emma in Origins ''calls herself "Frost" is perhaps her nickname or tribute to the original Emma, since they both share the power of organic diamond form. 3. Beast's changing appearance has more or less been finally explained by ''DoFP. The serum that Hank developed to help Xavier walk again also regulated his own physical appearance. Perhaps the reason he appears normal in X2 ''was because he could still be using that serum for certain occasions, such as looking "presentable" for a TV appearance. Additionally, one reason why he looks more animalistic in ''X3 ''was that, since becoming Secretary of Mutant Affairs, he either wanted to be more representative of mutant-kind, or that the serum doesn't work as effectively on his older self or it has a painful/undesirable side-effect because of his age. Additionally, maybe he was so anxious for the Worthington cure to go forward because his original serum could no longer effectively mask his physical mutation. 4. Xavier's ability to walk has also been finally explained in ''DoFP - Hank's serum. Now, as seen near the end of DoFP, he opts out of the serum in order to regain his telepathic powers and gives up his mobility. However, one possible reason why we see him walking in Origins ''and ''X3 but still able to use his telepathy is that Hank probably modified the serum for Xavier so that he could have brief mobility for certain occasions (such as meeting prospective students at their homes) and display a small degree of telepathy to prove that he's a mutant like them. 5. Xavier's relationship with Mystique. As established in First Class, Charles and Raven have known each other since 1944. Of course, at the end of First Class, they part ways and over the years, become completely estranged from one other because of their increasingly different views. 6. Cyclops' age has also been a bone of contention. For instance, in First Class, we see a young teenaged Cyclops when Xavier first uses Cerebro in 1962. If Cyclops is shown to be in his early teens in that First Class scene with Cerebro, he would have been in his late 20s or early 30s in Origins ''(and even older in the trilogy), and not in his teens as shown in ''Origins. Again, assuming he's in his early-mid teens in Origins, which takes place in the late 1970s, that would put him in his mid-late 30s by the time of the X-Men trilogy, which would be a reasonable age range. Characters appearing older or younger than they are supposed to be happens because of carelessness on the part of the screenwriters to dovetail the events or characters of the X-Men universe with linear chronology or due to an error in casting. 7. Which leads me to Moira MacTaggert. The reason why she may "look" young in X3 ''is perhaps due to taking good care of herself and her body in spite of her age. After all, she was a former CIA covert-ops agent, which would require you to be in the best physical shape possible. Maybe she continued to maintain her health to a high standards after leaving the CIA. 8. Victor Creed/Sabretooth's appearance. Although the films haven't yet stated the reason why Victor mutated into Sabretooth, their is a possible explanation for that change - Victor also underwent Weapon X experimentation sometime after the events of ''Origins ''but before the events of ''X1. This is outlined in the tie-in comic X2: X-Men United: The Movie Prequel: Wolverine. The comic is still canon, as nothing yet from the films refutes it. However, there are some irreconcilable errors, such as Xavier in X1 ''stating that he meet Erik when he was 17, which is later refuted in First Class. However, Bryan Singer had this to offer about that particular error (and, by extension, almost any continuity error) in an interview with SciFiNow on May 14... ''"Some things you let go," Singer admits. "In ''X-Men 3 Bolivar Trask was an African-American guy, in X-Men 1 I personally wrote the line that of course I now regret: 'When I was 17, I met a young man named Erik Lensherr' and then in X-Men: First Class I changed that!" he laughs.'' Ultimately, for continuity errors, thinking "outside the box" for plausible explantions when the films don't explicitly provide them is okay. There's no need to complicate and confuse things by creating new realities. And for those continuity errors you can't neccessarily find a plausible explanation for - you just discard them and move on.